Ryan Morris interviews this great Brooklyn based illustrator.
Ryan Morris submitted this great interview with this Brooklyn based artist last May! Well, emails got buried and we pulled this one out before it was too late... So some of the discussion is a bit dated, but whatever, it's about the art and is a chance for you to get to know this talented fella. Enjoy. -FF

JW: Im really good at making enemys, well not really. I guess what Im trying to say is to make sure that you watch my back, OK.

RM:
Oh, I am sure itll be fine. Its not like anybody goes out of the way to cause trouble. Do you?

JW: Well, I wouldnt say that. I just got in a good fight with Jonathan Levine a little while back, but were making up now.

RM:
What was that about?

JW:
Hes stressed out and disappointed with the amount of work I was giving him. I said Id try, but personally was aiming for a little bit more and he decided to hold me to it. Later we both sort of cooled off. I did a few more pieces and hes a little happier. You know if I dont have enough work for the show, I can just do some more later and Jonathan can sell them on his list.

RM:
Well how long has this show been in the process from start to finish?

JW:
Probably a year, Im still working on the final touches making my way up to the show date. Last year I had a smaller show with him in March I believe and we just ended up continuing from there after that exhibition. Actually no, in I did an art fair in Miami last summer and after that wrapped up I took the last six months to prep for this coming show. In all its been planned out since last year. As far as the work goes I dont plan that out ahead of time. I kind of just paint as it comes to me.

RM:
How do you plan for your paintings?

JW:
I use a sketchbook or a camera sometimes. Lately Ive been using pieces of parchment paper so that I can make the pelimenaries different sizes.
Its kind of interesting. What Im starting to do lately is putting some of the sketches in the actual shows. After Miami I started adding them as a sort of installation to the work and to show the process I go through. The only problem is that when they sell theyre harder to give up than the paintings. It can be compared to ripping out pages from a personal journal. Its always hard to part with the work, but Ive gotten better at it.

RM:
Well thats where the Giclee comes in? How do you feel about them?

JW:
If I need to, I can make a print out as needed. I photograph all my work and have the images at my disposal. The Giclees on the other hand fill a purpose. They will never be as good as the paintings themselves.
They are archival, acid free, etc. When it comes down to it the work is just there to be admired while its around. I have a place out in California that produces Iris prints for me and I havent had any complaints. I guess well see when Im dead, if they start turning yellow its not my problem.

RM:
How does your work fit in to the Low Brow scene?

JW:
I dont know how I fit in. In the terms of Pop-Surrealism or my background in illustration my work meets the criteria. The whole genre thing kind of puzzles me to be honest.

RM:
Where did you receive your education?

JW:
Risda, (Whats that?) the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence.

RM:
And what program?

JW:
The illustration department, I didnt want to go through the painting program, its to free and unstructured. I much preferred the traditional illustration program; I need to be regimented. I never imagined I would eventually become a painter and always thought I would do something along the lines of animation or design of some sort. I guess I was just really lucky how things turned out!

RM:
And from there, howd you make your way to starting your own business?

JW:
When I arrived in New York while looking for an apartment I ran in to another illustrator and former RISD graduate by the name of Jordan Isip. He told me to give him a call for any guidance or pointers I needed. After a little while I started getting a couple of editorial jobs, slowly making ends meet here and there. Then one day while playing softball Eric White a friend of Jordans who had checked out my work asked me to be a part of a group show he was having down in the lower east side. A lot of people came to that show including Jonathan Levine and basically I have been producing work with him ever since.

RM:
Tell me about the Jonathan Levine gallery.

JW:
My first show with him was down in New Hope, PA. He had this toy factory loft in this small affluent town where a lot of people from New York move to escape the city. At the time he was starting to show talents like Jeff Soto and Dave Cooper, whom he also has on going relationships with. He got to big for that space then moved to Philly and about a year and a half ago I got a call from him that he was moving here in New York.

RM:
Where do you see yourself in 5 yrs?

JW:
As the more time goes bye I see myself being less and less involved in the commercial market and more on the fine art side of things. Right after this show Im going to be working on the Society of Illustrators call for entries competition flyer and I wasnt really sure if I still wanted to be a part of that. Illustration involves a lot more planning and forethought. I see myself doing what I am doing now just getting more money for doing it.

RM:
Conceptually?

JW:
With the whole book thing lately Ive been thinking about doing a show that is structured with a story in mind. Having all the pieces correlate to one another. I dont really know if I can work that way being that each part is individual. It might be a little too close to illustration.

RM:
What Music, Movies, or Media are you into right now?

JW:
Right now its kind of all over the place with my MP3 player. Actually, when you walked in I was listening to that Wolf Mother. Its one of those CDs where I dont think Ill be listening to in a month. But, as of right now I like it! What else, that movie Barton Fink, I feel like after viewing the film Im going through the same experience in my life right now. Almost as a block in how he had difficulties adapting his writing for film. Its kind of similar to the process any artist goes through. During the creation of this show I kind of got stuck and kept re-painting over what I had already done. So that no one really knows all the changes or the process that went into any individual piece. The clash between the artist and the business is so evident in that film.

RM:
Any other things coming up that we should know about?

JW:
The book that I mentioned earlier will be out on the 10th of June, which is the last day of the show. Well be having a book signing at the gallery and coincidentally its also around the time of my 30th birthday. So it should be a good time.

RM:
Finally, what advice can you give to all those young aspiring artists?

JW:
Dont do it... Umm, take it all for what it is. I had no choice in the matter. If I had a full-time job Id still paint. If you produce naturally youll have nothing to worry about because youll make it happen. The most dangerous thing about this way of life is having an out. Having a real life is not as stressful. Being an artist, I love it, it fulfills my needs, but by no means does it satisfy them. I still feel like Im outside of the normaal flow of life and the work is always on the back of my mind.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

Just want to say congrats to Fecal Face's Rachel Ralph for graduating from SFAI with her masters in curatorial studies. Also want to congratulate Alex Ziv who also just got his MFA in painting. Also a high five to the talented Mario Ayala who also just graduated from SFAI as well! --- All super talented artists (thinkers), and we're excited to see what the future holds for them!

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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